


Telling

by DanHasOTPs



Series: Brothers [1]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Coming Out, Family, Gen, Tien is the best most awkward brother ever, Trans!Chiaotzu, ftm character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 20:50:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6093658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanHasOTPs/pseuds/DanHasOTPs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chiaotzu is finally sure of who he is, now comes the difficult part; telling his story aloud.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Telling

**Author's Note:**

> In this fanfic I will be calling Chiaotzu by a different name; Nezha. This will be his 'female' name.

Nezha had never once thought that she’d be facing Tien with her hands shaking and breathing hard outside of a battle.

No. Not she. He, as he’d realised.

Years spent not knowing what was wrong, the next few spend denying it and now the acceptation.

But acceptation meant that ‘she’ was no longer someone and ‘he’ became one.

But only to himself, as nobody else knew. If he didn’t tell everyone he would always stay ‘she’.

He wanted her to disappear and him to take her place.

Thinking about telling _everyone_ scared him; the Crane Hermit would certainly not react well. The only reason for even taking ‘her’ on as a student was because he wanted a pair of assassins that contained both genders.

Telling his old wise teacher was out of the question, so he decided to approach his best friend instead.

“Tien?” He softly called out to him after he came to a stop outside of the room Tien currently occupied.

“What is is Nezha?!” He responded from the back of the overstuffed storage room. The sound was a little muffled by the ceiling high boxes piled around the room and some other junk that surrounded him.

“C-can…” He took a deep breath to calm himself before trying again. “Can you come with me? I need to tell you something.”

He saw some of the boxes move, a few items falling out of the highest one and banging on the floor before Tien appeared, covered in a layer of dust and wincing at the noise. They were supposed to be assassins, quiet and deadly, but he always felt to big for the part.

One look at her told him what needed to be done.

He didn’t question why; he’d definitely heard it was serious by the tone of her voice and her body language confirmed it.

Smart enough to know that the subject of the conversation wasn’t for the Hermits ears, he moved to follow her to wherever she felt most comfortable talking.

He started walking , Tien following without hesitation until they were presented with a small river where the water ran slow and calmly.

They sat down on a big rock, side by side and facing the clear riverstream.

Tien sat cross legged, slightly hunched over with his arms leaning on his legs as he waited for his friend to tell him what needed to be said, patience fluidly flowing from him in the waves.

Nezha had pulled his legs up to his chest, arms wrapped around them. He was self-conscious about his position as this was often seen as effeminate, but deciding the comfort it gave him took priority over appearances.

For a few seconds the sounds of the river and forest overtook them.

And the _he_ started talking.

“Tien, I’m a boy.”

Just a statement, nothing more, nothing less.

“I-I feel like one, but I…”

He fell silent as he looked at Tien; all three of his eyes had slightly widened, still staring into the water that slowly streamed away before his eyes.

“B-But… But I thought you were a girl! I mean, you look like one!” He very blatantly looked at her chest before blushing brightly and looking away, lowering his head in apology before stammering on. “A-and Master Shen said you were!” He almost shouted in confusion as he continued to ramble on.

Nezha took a deep breath before attempting to control the damage.

“Tien, wait.” He said calmly, but firmly, breaking through Tien’s shock.

Tien fell silent in the middle of a sentence.

“I’m female, physically, but... ‘mentally’ I’m male.”

He was using terminology from the pamphlets he stolen from a doctor’s office in one of the cities they visited on their travels to try to explain how and what he felt, but he’d never found the correct terms to really describe himself.

A boy born in a girls body? No.

No, this was still his body, it just didn’t look or work how he wanted it to.

And yes, everyone had things… features they didn’t like or even hated. He had those, oh how he had those. And he wasn’t even talking about the obvious stuff, this was about his wide hips and narrow waist, his short height and small feet. Those were just as bad as the organs.

But, also, just like everyone, he had parts he liked about his body. He liked his pale skin, nearly flawless, and the fact that he already had a substantial muscle mass without any help from hormones and the general shape of his face. He wouldn’t change those even if he had the chance.

“Wait, physically female, but mentally male? I… I don’t understand.” Tien turned his entire body to face Nezha.

She looked disheartened.

“Nezha,” The other flinched, but Tien continued on, “You’re my best frie-my family.” He corrected, “And… I want to understand this… and you! I want to understand you, I mean.” Tien let out a deep sigh, squeezing his eyes shut tightly before reopening them and looking Nezha straight in the eye with conviction.

“Please listen, you’re my _family_ , I want to understand. If you’re willing to be patient, I’m willing to do my best and learn!”

For Tien, losing the only family he had would be devastating. He’d be prepared to do anything for them to keep them with him, and even if he didn’t understand this yet, it would be no exception.

But they both were slow learners in social situations.

“Yes, Tien, I have all the patience in the world for you.”

A small smile formed on both their faces as the realization that everything would be okay sunk in.

“Oh, and Tien?”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun facts:
> 
> The name Nezha is the name of the character from a journey to the west that inspired chiaotzu. 
> 
> That was all for now^^'
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this!


End file.
